Weight isn't coming off- doing everything right??? Anyone el

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13

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  • AmyjoyHa
    AmyjoyHa Posts: 9 Member
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    Hey,
    My sister has had major issues losing little bits after lots of work only to pig out ONCE and have it all come back and having to fight it off all over again. She was diagnosed with PCOS, or Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. It makes it VERY difficult to lose and very easy to gain, the bigger you are the worse it gets. The funny thing is if you can get (and stay pregnant to full term as it also affects your fertility) they symptoms seem to go away. I dont know if this is the answer for you but it is certainly worth checking out.
  • dovesgate
    dovesgate Posts: 894 Member
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    I'm having the same problem. I'm not losing weight. Any advice. I'm eating b/t 1200 to 1300 cals a day and burning anywhere from 900 to 2200 a day depending on the day. What am i doing wrong?

    Unless you're eating NET 1200-1300 per day you aren't eating enough. Eating 1200 calories then burning off 900 means you're only getting 300 calories of fuel for your body. Use the car analogy - you can't go long distances when you only put a 1/4 of a tank in right? So fill up your tank and your body will perform the way you want it to.
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
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    I'm having the same problem. I'm not losing weight. Any advice. I'm eating b/t 1200 to 1300 cals a day and burning anywhere from 900 to 2200 a day depending on the day. What am i doing wrong?

    Well you are trying to kill yourself and your body won't let you? So you are netting 300 to minus 1000 calories? and it does not sound crazy to you? Step back on the exercise, feed your body properly.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I'm having the same problem. I'm not losing weight. Any advice. I'm eating b/t 1200 to 1300 cals a day and burning anywhere from 900 to 2200 a day depending on the day. What am i doing wrong?

    Not reading the available info already posted.
  • luvgreen25
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    Yes, you can gain weight by eating too little. But a lot can change in 5 years. Go get your thyroid checked again. But in the meantime, I'd bump up your intake a bit. A few months ago, I went on vacation and totally ditched the diet (not recommended, but it worked for me THAT time) while I was on the cruise and when I came back, I had only gained 1 lb and the following week, lost 6 lbs. It was just the "shock" my body needed because I was on a constant losing cycle from that point forward. I stalled out again a few months ago and it's been up and down and slow going, but I'm trying to get back on track now. For a short while, I'd lost my motivation, but it's back now - I just realized that my birthday is 6 months away and I want to be at goal (15 more pounds) by my birthday. 15 pounds in 6 months is totally doable - I just have to do it.
  • lacharp
    lacharp Posts: 66
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    I second what others have been saying about having your thyroid checked and seeing a dietician. This past fall I had my thyroid checked when my doctor detected a rapid heartbeat and enlarged thyroid... my bloodwork came back normal, but she wasn't convinced things were okay and sent me for a thyroid ultrasound, then a thyroid uptake and scan. As a result, I was just diagnosed with Graves' disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism) last week. So despite normal-appearing bloodwork, something was definitely wrong with my thyroid! Thyroids are tricky things...

    In the midst of this I've also started seeing a nutritionist, who did a bioimpedance analysis which showed I have a way more dense/athletic frame than I thought. It turned out that while I was eating enough calories they weren't the right ones and I'm on a diet that's higher in protein now. It's definitely helping.
  • aliciar876
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    okay I get that I'm not netting enough calories.. but I thought in order to lose weight you had to burn more calories than you ate? Is that not true b/c that's what I've been going by, which would make sense why i'm only losing a pound a week.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    okay I get that I'm not netting enough calories.. but I thought in order to lose weight you had to burn more calories than you ate? Is that not true b/c that's what I've been going by, which would make sense why i'm only losing a pound a week.

    You are skimming the posts then and not really reading them.
    Several posters have stated pretty concisely why.

    And no, you cannot burn more calories than you require day after day. Just think about that for a minute, and go read the posts talking about what BMR is.
  • dovesgate
    dovesgate Posts: 894 Member
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    okay I get that I'm not netting enough calories.. but I thought in order to lose weight you had to burn more calories than you ate? Is that not true b/c that's what I've been going by, which would make sense why i'm only losing a pound a week.

    You already are burning more than you eat if you use MFP's food diary and calorie count to lose weight because MFP builds the calorie deficit in for you. Giving yourself between 300 and -1000 calories is not healthy by anyone's standards. You will not lose faster by starving yourself which is essentially what you are doing if your intake balances the way you say it does.
  • shelly77320
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    I guess it is true what they say about once you pass 40. I am 41 and my weight loos is at a snails pace.
  • Larida
    Larida Posts: 3
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    Train hard sounds good. And lift heavy... hope that's good for you. I'm quite a bit older and it gave me hemorrhoids... just so you know; if that condition should start for you, it may be because of the lifting. (If your gym has a pool, ending your workout with fifteen minutes of swimming works well for me and is a great overall exercise.)
  • Jo2926
    Jo2926 Posts: 489 Member
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    My only downfall is alcohol on the weekends. :)

    OP - How big a downfall is this? Are you talking a couple of glasses or a couple of bottles? That could be the culprit if its every week and large quantities.

    Also, I high recommend you stick with the strength training, especially when you don't have a lot to lose this can make a really big, visible, difference.

    Good luck!

    To the others on thread looking for advice - read all the links posted! Burning more calories than you eat is key, but these do not all have to be burned by exercise, you burn calories by existing!!
  • aliciar876
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    Okay so I've been reading alot of the post and about BMR. So I think I have this right but just asking if my BMR is say 1200 cal a day and I burn 1200 cals a day I actually need to eat 2400 cals?
  • Jo2926
    Jo2926 Posts: 489 Member
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    Okay so I've been reading alot of the post and about BMR. So I think I have this right but just asking if my BMR is say 1200 cal a day and I burn 1200 cals a day I actually need to eat 2400 cals?

    If by 'burn' you mean calories used for everything other than existing (daily activity plus exercise) then yes, thats how much you need to eat to maintain your current weight.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Okay so I've been reading alot of the post and about BMR. So I think I have this right but just asking if my BMR is say 1200 cal a day and I burn 1200 cals a day I actually need to eat 2400 cals?

    If by 'burn' you mean calories used for everything other than existing (daily activity plus exercise) then yes, thats how much you need to eat to maintain your current weight.

    And to add to that, that is what the deficit would come out of to lose weight.

    So alicia, that means NOT out of the 1200.

    So imagine BMR 1200, and you ate 1200. And all your activity calories was 1200.

    How many calories you giving your body to live on?
  • aliciar876
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    I believe the correct answer is zero.

    So for today I my food cal were 1698 my exercise was 1449 leaving a net of 249. So from this I should be eating more, however i'm trying to lose 2 pounds a week.
  • Apazman
    Apazman Posts: 494 Member
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    before bed, *kitten*/have sex, then hot bath, then peanut butter toast and a glass of milk, all just before bed and aim to sleep 10 hours a night.
  • dovesgate
    dovesgate Posts: 894 Member
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    I believe the correct answer is zero.

    So for today I my food cal were 1698 my exercise was 1449 leaving a net of 249. So from this I should be eating more, however i'm trying to lose 2 pounds a week.

    Alicia, what's your weight/height and how are you calculating these calorie burns?
  • aliciar876
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    298/ 5'7 I'm using myfitness pal exercise tool to track my calorie burns. they seem high sometime so i sometimes use what the treadmill says
  • dovesgate
    dovesgate Posts: 894 Member
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    298/ 5'7 I'm using myfitness pal exercise tool to track my calorie burns. they seem high sometime so i sometimes use what the treadmill says

    For me, MFP's calculations are way higher than I actually burn. I didn't know this until I got a HRM. You might want to invest in one to get more accuracy. I've also seen posts where people say the burns counted on treadmills etc are off as well. Because of this, I am going to hazard the guess that you aren't getting as much of a deficit as you think you are. You're still burning great calories but probably not over 1000 every day. So maybe just try eating a quarter to half your calories burnt until you can get a monitor.

    To lose 2 pounds per week you would start off eating 1200 calories. Then you work out for X numbers of calories. You eat those calories that you've burned so that your body will have the nutrition it needs to be happy. If you go below the numbers your body needs, your body can choose to hold on to your fat because it thinks you are starving.

    With your calories set at 1200, MFP has ALREADY calculated your calorie deficiency for healthy 2lbs per week weight loss so you don't have to worry about attempting to burn 1200 calories every day to lose weight. Heck, you're still at a weight that if you chose to not work out, you could still lose 2lbs just through your food intake.